Current real estate wisdom says high-rise office buildings won’t fly with entertainment tenants. But a Los Angeles developer is about to buck the current wisdom. The Platt Cos. has proposed a $150 million complex in the heart of Burbank’s Media District with an 18-story tower as its centerpiece. If approved, the project at Alameda and Olive avenues would include some 565,000 square feet of office space in two buildings (the second, a six-story structure), a full-service hotel with about 400 rooms and a 73,000-square-foot health club. The Four Square Gospel Church, which now occupies a portion of the four-acre project site, would be rebuilt and moved to another part of the site. The church plans to operate a daycare center for the children of area office workers. “This is intended to be the focal point of the entire Media District,” said Rick Platt, president and chief executive of Platt Cos. “It’s a sound business plan that is really responsive to these media tenants in the market.” Platt Cos. has only just made its proposal, but already it is expected to stir up controversy. Although there are provisions for exceptions, the office building and hotel, also planned for 18 stories, exceed the height limit and overall square footage guidelines dictated in the Media District specific plan. “It will probably be a lightning rod,” said Bud Ovrom, Burbank city manager. When the Media Center specific plan was drawn up, Burbank officials carved out a triangular section at Alameda and Olive intended to be the heart of the district. A parcel at the southern end of the triangle was recently acquired by M. David Paul & Associates, which has begun constructing an office campus there. But the land at the northern end of the triangle, where Platt hopes to build, remained inactive because developers were unable to reach a deal with the site’s multiple owners. It has taken Platt two years to assemble the site that was comprised of 17 parcels with 10 different owners. “You had to have all the owners agree at numbers that were advantageous to building,” Platt said. A developer would have difficulty recouping the cost of the parcel with a campus-style development, which would yield far less space for rent. But most of the projects recently built or under construction in the San Fernando Valley have been campus-style structures, and they have been leased up far more quickly than the more traditional high-rise offices. Entertainment companies, in particular, have favored the campus-style projects because the internal space is better suited to open work areas and cubicles layouts preferred for creative work environments. And the exterior grounds offer more opportunity for employees to congregate. Platt, however, believes that the preference for campus-style buildings is nothing more than a trend and the pendulum is due to swing back. “I think high-rise buildings offer some significant advantages,” said Platt. “When you have a meandering (campus) area, that’s nice, but if there aren’t activities to hold (workers) there, they’ll only spend so much time there.” Building the office space upward rather than outward, Platt said, allows for amenities like the health club and the church, which would provide more opportunities for employees to gather than landscaped walkways would provide. The high-rise configuration is also better suited to smaller tenants, who typically cannot fill out an entire floor in a low-rise building. “A smaller tenant can get lost in a 50,000-square-foot floor plate,” Platt said. Platt expects rents to fall in the $3-per-square foot range, if his proposed project is approved. Both the developer and the city expect strong demand for the hotel site. Unlike other areas of Burbank, which have drawn a lukewarm response from hotel operators, the Media District, with its entertainment companies and high-rent appeal, is considered an ideal location. Noting that hotel occupancy rates in the area fall at around 82 percent, Platt said a number of hotel operators have already made inquiries on the site. “We have four to five hotels pursuing us, as opposed to the other way around,” Platt said. Platt, who also developed The Tower office building at 10940 Wilshire Blvd. in Westwood, has hired Murphy/Jahn, the architectural firm that designed that building as well, for its Burbank project. Plans call for garden terraces along the outside of the high-rise office building that would range from three to five stories in height, to provide an outdoor feeling to the offices. It is likely to take another year for the project to complete the approval process and for groundbreaking to occur. The developer expects construction to be completed in four years. Burbank city officials point out that the components and design of the project fit well with the vision of the city’s specific plan. “The church, the hotel and the fitness center all work well to serve the needs of the employee base,” said Robert M. Tague, Burbank’s community development director. “The jury is still out on the density issue. We have to go through the environmental review. I tend to be reluctant to make any decisions until that’s all done.”
